Re: Future English

This thread has inspired me to develop a grammar and syntax for a Future
English language.  This Future English will be spoken at least 500 years
from now.  It demonstrates many of the characteristics of modern-day Hebrew
and Arabic:
- VSO word-order
- Proclitic prepositions
- Prefixed subject markers and suffixed object markers on (transitive) verbs
- Mostly prefixing TMA morphology

The Future English verb has the following tenses: past (ha-,
from 'have/has') and non-past (unmarked).  It has these aspects:
progressive (-en, from '-ing') and non-progressive (unmarked).  Finally,
there are the following moods: imperative (les-, from 'let's'), optative
(me-, from 'may'), potential (ku-, from 'could'), conditional (vu-,
from 'would'), suggestive/hortative (xu- /Su/, from 'should'),
subjunctive/conjunctive (da-, from 'that'), and volitional (vi-,
from 'will').  The order of the morphemes is the following:

SUBJ-MOOD-TENSE-ROOT/STEM-ASPECT-PLURAL-OBJ

The 1st and 2nd persons have the same forms for subject and object markers:
1st-person -mi-, 2nd-person -jo-.  With transitive verbs, a 3rd-person
subject is unmarked and a 3rd-person object is marked by the suffix -im.
Finally, the 1st- and 2nd-person plural objects have the plural -s suffixed
to their respective object endings.

Another interesting feature of this Future English is its distinction
between alienable and inalienable possession.  The former is marked by a
suffix -on, from the verb "own", on a personal pronoun, while the latter is
expressed by the preposition o' "of" followed by the pronoun.  For example,
_ket mion_ "my cat" (lit. "the cat that I own/have" or "my own cat") vs.
_fado o'mi_ "my father" (lit. "father of mine").

With nouns, there are no morphological case forms.  Plural number is
distinguished by the suffix -s(a).  However, unlike current English, Future
English does not use the plural when a noun is quantified by a number, e.g.
_dari buka_ vs. "three books".  This feature presumably came from the
influence of Mandarin and other such languages.

Regarding phonology, Future English has simplified the complex phoneme
inventory of current English.  Most consonant clusters have been
simplified, either by inserting prothetic vowels or eliminating them.  The
vowel system, phonemically speaking, has collapsed back into the classic 5-
vowel Continental system.  However, most vowels are pronounced "shorter"
(i.e. more open for non-low vowels and [@] for the low vowel /a/) in closed
syllables.  Also, aspiration, not voicing, is now the distinguishing
feature between the two "stop series" inherited from current English.  So,
for example, _mitekenim_ "I'm taking [something]" would be pronounced
['mi.t_he.k_he.nIm].

That's about all for right now.

- Rob

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